STER­ILE BOXES

IT seems all the houses in Aus­tralia are built for a per­son called Re­sale Value.

This per­son nor­mally de­mands four bed­rooms and two bath­rooms be­cause he is mar­ried and has 2.54 chil­dren. He needs all the crea­ture com­forts such as elec­tric­ity, a large kitchen and a dou­ble garage, but seems to care very lit­tle for energy ef­fi­ciency or gen­eral live­abil­ity of his houses.

He also does not give a hoot what the per­son who builds the house wants, as long as Mr Re­sale Value gets all the things he wants.

There was a time when Re­sale Value wanted a gar­den in which you could grow your veg­gies but now he has set­tled for a large house with no mean­ing­ful gar­den be­cause gar­dens are seen as messy and they take too much main­te­nance.

In fact, Re­sale Value de­mands that houses are as neat and ster­ile as pos­si­ble so that noth­ing can pos- sibly go wrong and the per­son who builds the house leaves as lit­tle of his or her char­ac­ter be­hind for him to pon­der over. ROSELT CROESER, Shoal­wa­ter.